Sabey Data Center — San Marcos
Site area
784 ac
Developer
Sabey Data Centers / Carson Select Investments LP
Sabey Data Centers, operating as a joint venture with National Real Estate Advisors, has proposed a data center campus on approximately 786 acres at the intersection of South Old Bastrop Highway and Centerpoint Road in San Marcos. Roughly 184 acres are designated for light industrial (data center) use, with 392 acres as open space and 209 acres for future development. A Pedernales Electric Cooperative substation is included in the site. The San Marcos City Council was negotiating a development agreement as of mid-2025.
Water Impact
Daily water use (estimated range)
Unknown
Water returned per day
None reported
vs. 5M gal/day (typical 400 MW facility)
- Water intake
- Unknown
- Lost to evaporation
- 100%
- Returned to system
- 0% (None reported)
Direct water figures are estimates from permit applications and developer disclosures. Indirect (power generation) figures are calculated estimates. Actual water use depends on technology choices, operating capacity, and weather conditions.
Location
Address: S. Old Bastrop Hwy & Centerpoint Rd, San Marcos, Hays County, TX
Distance to aquifer edge: 0 miles
Infrastructure
- Land owner
- Carson Select Investments LP (Carson Properties, San Marcos TX)
This project needs your attention.
Application is filed — your voice carries extra weight right now
Officials are still persuadable. A formal application creates the paper trail that triggers public notice, but no vote has been scheduled yet. Letters received during the review period go into the record and are read by staff writing the recommendation.
Timeline
June 5, 2025
Proposal reported; City Council begins negotiations
Community Impact reported the Sabey proposal. Mayor Jane Hughson and council members Amanda Rodriguez and Lorenzo Gonzales were appointed to negotiate a development agreement.
Source →(opens in new tab)June 3, 2025
City Council votes 7-0 to begin development agreement negotiations
San Marcos City Council unanimously approved beginning negotiations with John David Carson (Carson Select Investments LP) and Sabey Data Centers LLC for 785.66 acres near S. Old Bastrop Hwy and Centerpoint Rd. Mayor Hughson and council members Rodriguez and Gonzales appointed to lead negotiations. City staff recommended approval.
Source →(opens in new tab)June 3, 2025
Residents raise water, cemetery, and noise concerns at packed council meeting
Hundreds attended the June 3 council meeting. Citizens raised concerns about Stage 5 drought conditions, data center water demands, risk to the San Marcos River and endangered species, and noise impacts on a cemetery located on the proposed site. Developer John David Carson claimed the project would use "substantially less water than a 500-home subdivision" and proposed closed-loop cooling with restrictive covenants.
Source →(opens in new tab)
Sources
- 1. Sabey looks to develop data center campus outside Austin, Texas — Data Center Dynamics, 2025-06-01. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 2. 3 data centers newly proposed in and around San Marcos — Community Impact, 2025-06-05. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 3. June 3, 2025 City Council Recap — City of San Marcos, 2025-06-03. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 4. ICYMI: 3 new data centers proposed near San Marcos — Community Impact, 2025-06-13. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 5. Data center proposals draw hundreds to San Marcos meeting — CitizenPortal.ai, 2025-06-03. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 6. With 5 data centers on the horizon, Hays County water advocates see the fight as just beginning — KUT Radio, 2026-02-26. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 7. Sabey considers Natrium nuclear deployment at its data centres — World Nuclear News, 2025-01-01. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 8. Data Centers in Round Rock — FAQ — City of Round Rock, 2026-01-01. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 9. Plans Call for Third Data Center in Growing Hill County Cluster — GovTech, 2025-06-01. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 10. Hays CAD Parcel R10832 — Carson Select Investments LP (Sabey site, 559.4 ac primary parcel) — Hays County Appraisal District, 2026-04-08. Link →(opens in new tab)
- 11. SDC San Marcos — datacentermap.com — datacentermap.com, 2026-04-20. Link →(opens in new tab)
Community Notes
The Sabey/Carson Select project sits within the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, approximately 1.5 miles from the Hays Energy Power Plant at 1601 Francis Harris Lane. A family cemetery located on the 786-acre site drew specific objections at the June 2025 council meeting. Developer John David Carson proposed "closed-loop" cooling with restrictive covenants limiting water use, claiming the data center would consume "substantially less water than a 500-home subdivision." This claim has not been independently verified and uses a comparison civic groups dispute as misleading. For comparison: the City of Round Rock independently monitored Sabey's existing 84 MW facility and found it uses approximately 2 million gallons annually (~5,500 gallons/day) — equivalent to roughly 15 single-family homes. Round Rock's PUD requires closed-loop cooling as a binding condition. If the San Marcos facility operates at a similar per-MW efficiency to Round Rock and is larger (likely 200+ MW), daily water use would scale proportionally. No water plan has been publicly disclosed for the San Marcos campus. The project involves a joint venture between Sabey Data Centers and National Real Estate Advisors (NREA) — an established partnership since 2010. NREA is the investment arm of the National Electric Benefit Fund (IBEW). Sabey is separately exploring Natrium (TerraPower) small modular nuclear reactor deployment at its Texas data centers. As of April 2026, development agreement negotiations that began in June 2025 have not produced a public outcome. The project has received less media attention than the Highlander SM One case. Hays County Judge Becerra's proposed water-use moratorium (tabled Feb 2026) would have covered any facility drawing more than 25,000 gallons/day — scope that would likely include this project.